Top 10 Insights on SEO from Google’s John Mueller (Guest Post)

The insights on all things SEO are invaluable, especially when it comes from John Mueller. Recently, the Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google answered some pressing questions on the use of nofollow links, dangers of duplicate content, and more. Most of his answers got featured on Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” session. Here are 10 things an SEO can learn from his comments, including excerpts of the answers he gave to the users on Reddit.

Insight #1: On Hiding Design Features on Websites’ Responsive Version

The essence of the question is simply this: would hiding some design features for enhancing user experience (UX) have a negative impact on rankings, now that websites are gravitating towards mobile-first indexing.

From Mueller’s answer, it can be inferred that although some design features have to be compromised on mobile-optimized version of web pages, important UX elements have to be fully loaded on the page just as users open it. He substantiated that Google understands why certain layout features would have to be hidden, but still, it is important to promote user interaction for better conversion rates.

Insight #2: On Whether Google Plans to Ignore the Nofollow Directive

Nofollow directive is a value added in Meta tags for a webpage’s HTML source code, to suggest Google not to follow external links within the site. This has been used by several websites.

Does Google Ignores Nofollow Links?

Mueller said that Google has no plans to ignore nofollow all of a sudden since it does not cause any issues but find it as useful to the search engine. Although, he did point out that there is a tendency for things to evolve in due course. So, one cannot rule out an algorithm update that may invite changes in future.

This refers to the number of clicks, which a site appearing on SERP receives divided by impressions. Those in the SEO profession seems to think that organic CTR contributes to search rankings, but the Google executive says that it perhaps is not as influential as most people feel it is. His answer suggests people do “weird things” after a search, like stepping back, and that indicates that clicks on a ranked site are not an accurate measure of its quality. Besides, there are ways to encourage higher rankings and that is to optimize long-tail keywords, Meta descriptions, etc. Here is the best content marketing strategy of 2018 to follow to promote your website naturally in search engines.

Insight #4: On Whether Google Algorithms Differ in Countries

A Reddit user doubted if there are inconsistencies for rankings for different zones, as denoted by the country code on Google websites. This raised the question whether the search engine uses different algorithms or ranking factors based on nations. Mueller says Google try not to adopt distinct algorithms per language or nation since it is more scalable to create something that is uniform for the web. He puts the inconsistencies, such as rich snippets launched in select markets, down to local content.

Insight #5: How do Spammers and Bots Influence Search Trends and Volume?

The essence of the question is whether bots and spammers can be held accountable for non-organic trends, which illicit marketers can take up. In response, Mueller says that Google is doing their best to block and filter those, although captcha pops up to even the most reasonable search queries. There has to be a way to help people get what they want without having to prove they are no robots, and Mueller rightly feels there should be an easier way to block and filter bots and spammers without having to rely too much on captcha.

Insight #6: Creating Different Pages for Each Question and Answer

A Reddit user asked since his website has articles on a range of topics, whether it would be possible to create articles for each question and answer without violating Google’s duplicate content guidelines. Mueller suggests a different idea: work on quality, not quantity.

Insight #7: John Mueller’s Definition Of a Wrong SEO Advice

He says a wrong SEO advice is one that has no effect on rankings in the long run, especially. He equates it to advising a business to change invoice printing paper – something that involves time and effort for no real beneficial outcome.

Insight #8: On the Frequency of Publishing Content and Ranking

It has been a misconception among site owners that publishing content frequently can attain higher search rankings. He says that Google algorithms do not give preferential treatment to websites that publish content regularly than other websites.

Insight #9: SEO Tip to Avoid Duplicate Content

One method SEOs use to avoid duplicate content, which may impact rankings, is to rewrite the source content with subtle differences. That is by using synonyms and associated words to make the content unique. According to Mueller, this can be counterproductive to a website. It is always best to make content as unique as possible.

Insight #10: The Mobile-First Index

The mobile version of a site is a priority when it comes to what Google includes in the index, making it the main version over the desktop version. This change is rolling out to only those sites, which the search engine considers ready for the move. This is why Mueller states webmasters not to panic. In other words, until the site is ready to be launched as a mobile-friendly version, he advises sticking to quality content on desktop version to get indexed and then crawled. The logic is to take time to come with the best mobile-friendly site that ranks higher.

Author-Bio: Jayalekshmi is an SEO Analyst working at MyHobbes.com for last 2 years. She completed her Bachelor’s Degree from Musaliar College of Engineering and Technology, a diploma course in digital marketing and Oracle Certified Associate. In her free time, she learns classical music and cooking wonderful dishes.

Published by:Anish Tiwari, a professional tech blogger and digital marketing expert with 3+ years of experience in SEO, SMO, Blogging, Content Writing, and strategy planning etc. If you want to feature your company, blogs, and articles on a high-quality guest blogging website, then feel free to contact him or either contact ShouTech directly at shout@shoutech.in to get your company featured at ShouTech.

Anish Tiwari is an SEO/SMO expert and Blogger loves to write and explore newness relates to IT, Search Engines, Web Development, Gadgets etc. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for the glimpses. You can also find me on Twitter and LinkedIn for better communication.

POPULAR CATEGORY

ShouTech was founded in December 2016 by a Delhi based IGNOU student who has a keen interest in technology, search engines, mobility, IoT, enterprise mobility and loves content writing and interests in blogging mainly.